


Stop the Tide

by ohjustdisarmalready



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Temporary Character Death, it gets better tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 03:03:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13672923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustdisarmalready/pseuds/ohjustdisarmalready
Summary: Prompt: Magnus, "How do I look?"





	Stop the Tide

**Author's Note:**

> Magnus deffo died more than once in the first few cycles, is all I'm saying.

“How do I look?” asks Magnus, poking at his black eye, his ribs, his arm. It’s much more attached than it was what feels like seconds ago. “Told you, psychological trauma is very slimming. Makes your muscles stand out.”

He grins, but Davenport looks at him severely.

“Next time you wait for backup,” he orders. “No matter how good your shot is, you wait for someone to have your damn back.”

Magnus nods, unrepentant. He did what was best at the time.

His jacket catches fire.

“Lup!” he complains, beating it out. It doesn’t burn him, so she can’t be too pissed, but he’s only got one of them!

Lup bares her teeth at him and shakes her head, stalking off. Taako gives him a dead-eyed look.

“Don’t bother. We have nothing to say to a dead man walking,” is all he says before following her.

Magnus watches them go. Was it…

“Was it really that bad?” he asks. “It was just a few months, I wasn’t even gone that…”

Merle is shaking his head and Lucretia is determinedly writing in the way she does when she’s died a cycle. She must not have made it either. Magnus frowns.

She doesn’t even look at him.

“Was it a bad cycle?” he tries. Barry shrugs.

“Not the worst. Listen, Magnus, you wanna walk with me?” he asks. Magnus trots behind him as he leaves, shooting a glance back. They carefully avoid the sound of sobs coming from the twins’ closed door.

Magnus can’t help a pause there, though. She sound so upset, he wants to help. Barry takes his arm and guides him onward, though.

“The twins found your body. Rescue attempt. I hear it wasn’t pretty.” he mutters. Magnus winces. Yeah, it wouldn’t have been.

“Sorry,” he says.

“Don’t apologize to me.”

Finally, they reach Barry’s room. Magnus hasn’t been before, at least not that he remembers off the top of his head. It’s very neat. Barry sits on the only chair, though, so Magnus has to take the bed.

“You know you can’t keep doing this, right?” Barry says. Magnus frowns.

“What?” he asks. “Dying? Because I really wasn’t trying that time, that one was a mistake.”

Barry takes a deep breath and pinches his nose.

“Believe me, we’d love it if you stopped dying,” he says. “I’m pretty good, but raising sentient life forms is pretty far beyond me still. But uh, no. That’s not it.”

What else did he do wrong? He’d made a mistake, sure, and he’d paid for it, but it wasn’t like he’d meant to be caught.

He stares at Barry’s empty walls as he thinks. There was no way he could have known it was a trap, so that’s out. He didn’t get anyone killed with him. He’d died before they got the light, sure, but…

“You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you,” Barry says. Magnus shrugs.

“Not really, no.” He shuffles his feet awkwardly. It seems like he never gets what his smarter teammates are talking about. Everyone else is so cool with their magics and their science and he’s just…

“We need you, Magnus,” Barry says. “We need you  _alive_. Captain Davenport asked for you  _specifically_ for this mission because we  _need you_. You’ve died three times, Magnus! We can’t keep doing this!”

“But–” Magnus begins, but Barry holds his hand out.

“No! Magnus, we can’t keep losing you. We’re all we have left and–we can’t keep losing you,” he says. He stares at Magnus with sad, sad eyes.

“Please. The twins are already cutting their losses. This crew will  _fall apart_  if we can’t trust each other to be there to the end,” he says. “I’m not saying you can’t try to help people. But just–wait for backup next time. This lone wolf thing is hurting all of us.”

Magnus feels his face burn as Barry speaks. He hunches in on himself, feeling about two feet tall. That’s shorter than Davenport. He stares at his feet.

“I didn’t mean to die,” he says, still, because he didn’t. It was an accident.

“But you didn’t care if you did,” Barry counters. “Just because we come back doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to dying, Magnus. We have to live with those every time.”

“I’m sorry,” is all Magnus can think to say. He was just trying to help.

Barry sighs.

“I know you are, buddy,” he says. “Just–try not to do it again, okay? Just try.”

Magnus manages a tiny nod.

“Can I go apologize to Lup now?” he asks, just to get out. He does feel bad for making her find his body, though. Maybe if he tells Taako it’s an apology he’ll help him make something.

Barry gets up and offers him a hand. He takes it even though he can get up himself.

“Yeah, go on,” he says, pulling Magnus in for the quickest hug of his entire life. “Thanks for listening.”

Magnus pulls him in for a real hug. He squeezes tight and pretends not to notice the trembling. It’s impossible to tell who it’s coming from.

“Thanks, Barry,” he whispers.

Maybe there’s something more important than rushing in, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Barry and Magnus could be good friends. They don't get enough love.


End file.
